Martian clouds

[n2doc]

Martian Clouds Above Phoenix 09.29.08

The Surface Stereo Imager onboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander observed clouds drifting across the horizon in the early morning on the 119th sol, or Martian day, since landing (September 25, 2008). Clouds were observed each night after Sol 80 (August 15, 2008) as the atmospheric temperature decreased.

[ixion]

1. interesting

it would seem that clouds are universal. :)

[DCofVA]

2. That is amazing!

I thought Mars didn't have an atmosphere.

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. It is very thin, but it is there

The Wikipedia entry for Mars lists an atmosphere of 0.7 to 0.9 kiloPascals (kP), or roughly 0.7% to 0.9% of Earth's atmosphere at sea level. Mars' atmosphere is about 95.7% carbon dioxide, with the rest mostly nitrogen (2.7%) and argon (1.6%.)

By contrast, Earth's atmosphere has an average pressure of around 101.3 kP, of 78.8% nitrogen and 20.9% oxygen.

[Whoa_Nelly]

3. link?

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. This is old news, actually

Mars Pathfinder imaged clouds on Mars more than ten years ago.

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/mars/science/clouds.html

[RT Atlanta]

6. my my ...

that is so beautiful!